13 Mar2019: Seeing the bigger Picture

Luke tells us that as Jesus was proceeding on his journey towards Jerusalem, the crowds accompanying him were getting bigger and bigger (v.29). Jesus was suspicious of their real motivations. They were not ready for the greatest gifts he would give them. The signs they were seeking were personal favours and political revolution! Their perspective of the Kingdom was small. God’s choices are different, because he sees the bigger and the eternal picture! They could not see the eternal perspective from which Jesus saw his mission as Messiah, or his work of Redemption. They wanted only ‘here and now’ favours! God is annoyed if we are stubbornly looking only for the signs that we wish to see! We could be missing the forest for the tree! Or we could be like a little fish in the ocean, which asked his mother, “where is this ocean of which I hear?”

To understand the value of God’s greatest gifts, we need to see them from an eternal perspective, the bigger picture. We want God to re-arrange all the world to satisfy our daily petty desires. But we are not its creators, nor are we the determiners of our own destiny. Our arrangement of the world may not be the best for us. They have been fixed by our Father who sees everything. Failing to recognize his vision, and insisting on ours could be a fatal mistake. Anything God arranges for us is far superior to what we can ever long for!

Imagine that you are caught in a thick forest, struggling to find the way out. But then if you had a GPS instrument with you, which is guided by a satellite, the signals from top are certain to lead you right, because the satellite has the larger picture.

For a small fish to understand the ocean is impossible. To see the big picture, we need grace. It’s amazing, this Grace! This amazement is the awe, in front of the Sign, the bigger picture!